[Reader-list] RTF (Right to Food) Articles - 7

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear all

I am posting an article about an RTI campaign, which also has RTF as one of
its subsidiary concerns. In addition, SARAI can feel proud to have been part
of the convention mentioned in the article, and special congratulations (and
thanks, although very belated) from my side for this contribution. I think
SARAI can certainly make positive contributions in such fields, and we must
all extend our support to such movements, and it feels great to hear this.

Regards

Rakesh

Article:



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 [image: Frontline]  *Volume 21 - Issue 26, Dec. 18 - 31, 2004*
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*CAMPAIGNS*

* A battle for information *

SOWMYA KERBART SIVAKUMAR

* The Second National Right to Information Convention, held in Delhi
recently, sends out the message that the right to information movement in
India can no longer be ignored by the lawmakers. *

  BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

* At the `public hearing' at Ekta Vihar in New Delhi. *

 ON October 20, London-based Transparency International released the Global
Corruption Perception Index 2004. India is ranked 90 alongside six other
countries out of a total of 146 surveyed. At around the same time, the
country's capital witnessed an unusual, spontaneous and lively
demonstration. A congregation of over 1,000 people from 20 States and 250
organisations from around the country gave a rallying call in 17 different
languages: "*Hamara Paisa Hamara Hisaab*", *Nam Panam Nam Kanakku*", "*Aamcha
Paisa Aamcha Hisaab**... "* which mean "Our money, our accounts".

The slogan signifies a tremendous shift in how citizens react to the dubious
distinction of being in "one of the 60 most corrupt countries in the world".
No longer the tortured, silenced, cynical `victims of the system', but a
vocal, aware public demanding transparency and accountability - an outcry
growing louder by the day. This transformation has taken on a new idiom. It
is language that is steadily cutting across all barriers and divisive
structures, understood by all those who have realised how something as
`abstract' as information or the lack of it directly impinges on their daily
lives - on how much food they have, on what jobs they get, on which schools
their children do not get. Crystallised into one sharp belief that binds
them together are people old and young, illiterate and educated, rural and
urban. Among them are peasants, labourers, middle class people, women,
Dalits and the marginalised sections - *Janne ka hak, jine ka hak* (the
right to know, the right to live).

If this united call for accountability and the right to live set the mood
and pace of the Second National Right to Information Convention (October
8-10) organised by the National Campaign for People's Right to Information
(NCPRI) in Delhi, the energy and optimism resounded throughout the three
full days that it lasted. The reasons for this are not far to seek.

India is on the threshold of putting into place a law to counter corruption.
The draft national Right to Information Act, 2004, with 36 proposed
amendments to the inadequate Freedom of Information Act, 2002, is to be
introduced in the winter session of Parliament.

The origins of the draft date back to the struggles of the rural poor in
arid Rajasthan who started questioning the doctored accounts in their
panchayat: fake bills and muster rolls, non-existent buildings, and missing
bags of cement meant for public works. For the first time, the demand for
the right to information acquired a new meaning and form; shifting out of
its dusty textbook, seminar-room existence, it focussed on real issues -
drought, employment, health, education, electoral politics and so on. The
right to information movement in India, unlike in many other countries, is a
truly grassroots movement.

The First National Convention on the Right to Information, which was held in
Beawar in Rajasthan in 2001, according to Nikhil Dey, a founder member of
the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) "had a two-pronged objective -
one, to increase the pressure for legislation, which was showing some
positive signs in some States as well as at the Central level, and, second,
to send out strongly the message that the right to information comes alive
when connected to other rights of life; it is a very powerful tool that
every campaign must use".

In a span of three years, between Beawar and Delhi, the geographical spread
and variety in the application of the right to information has simply
burgeoned. Even as the idea of national legislation on the right to
information was being mulled over, State governments started to take
initiatives, with mounting public pressure. Nine States have passed right to
information laws, in addition to which there are several executive orders at
the State and national levels, which give citizens access to information
from specific departments. The right to information is being demanded from
many quarters and for many ends. It is really this integration taking place
with a wide-ranging set of issues, from food security to displacement to
communal violence, that is relatively new and continues to give it life and
sustenance.



* The owner of a ration shop responds to allegations of corruption at the
hearing. *

 INDIA'S pioneering `role model' status in the international discourse on
the right to information is unique. In a debate hitherto dominated by
freedom of individual expression (as in Eastern Europe), the freedom of
press or freedom of expression as talked of in the West and led by lobbying
groups, the ability of ordinary people in India to link it to basic rights
to life and indeed survival marks a major transformation in public
discourse. Many countries like South Africa, Bolivia, Columbia, the
Philippines and Japan have begun to draw lessons from the Indian examples,
that is, by organising the demand for the right to information around local
community groups.

A SYMBOLIC and fitting start to the Delhi convention was a *jan
sunwai*(public hearing). The
*jan sunwai*, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a mode of participation
popularised by the MKSS, a public forum where people speak up and are heard.
The subject of the public hearing was the public distribution system (PDS),
the issue of food security being a basic right for the poor, kept blatantly
out of their reach.

Specific testimonies were presented by residents of Ekta Vihar in the R.K.
Puram area of Delhi where the hearing was held. Experiences of those from
other parts of Delhi as well as representatives from Orissa, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and other parts of the country were
also shared. The presentations were divided broadly along four issues:
accountability, Dalits and access to the PDS, urban migrants and homeless
and alternative approaches (to distribution). Many complaints pertained to
the irregular timings of PDS shops, non-availability or sporadic
availability of rations, extremely poor quality of rations, overcharging by
the ration shop dealer, rations doled out below entitled quantities, apathy
of officials, difficulty in getting new cards and so on.

So how exactly does the use of right to information bring concrete solutions
to these problems? The systematic exposé of rampant corruption in three
specific ration shops in R.K. Puram area through the tool of public hearing
was in itself a new learning for many present.

Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan, an organisation that works intensively on
PDS-related issues in the capital, which brought to light the malfunctioning
of these shops, said: "A *jan sunwai *is part of a larger, systematic
process. First, we obtain the records through the right to information and
do a physical verification. Figures in the daily sales register of the
ration shops, once accessible, are compared with entries made in the ration
cards of the cardholders and the actual rations received. This `social
audit' is followed up with a *jan sunwai*, where the discrepancies are
presented and people testify in public. The findings are then presented to
the government, which is expected to take action as per the law."

For instance, according to the daily sales register of one of the shops,
Amir Hassan had been sold 75 kg of wheat and 50 kg of rice during April
2004. According to the ration card, however, he had been sold only 25 kg of
wheat and 10 kg of rice. Actually, Amir Hassan said he did not receive
anything during the month. Collecting evidence thus, it was found that the
ration dealer had siphoned off 440 kg of wheat, which amounted to nearly the
entire monthly quota to be distributed to the eight below the poverty line
(BPL) families that are covered by the shop.

Following the public hearing, the licences of all three ration shops were
suspended. But this does not suffice, feels Arvind Kejriwal. Being a
cognizable, non-bailable offence, cases should be registered and action
taken according to the law, he points out. "Unless the findings of a *jan
sunwai* are taken to their logical end, people will start losing faith in
this potentially powerful tool," he cautions.

The public hearing worked in many ways. As organisations such as Parivartan,
the experience helped them to define sharper questions. Those for whom
linking the right to information and the PDS in the way demonstrated by Ekta
Vihar residents revealed new ground, it led to a burst of enthusiasm, an
eagerness to put this new learning to test.

"The fact that people themselves spoke and presented their problems (at the
public hearing) in Delhi was very positive, something we would like to
imbibe here," says Ramesh Kadam, coordinator of the Mumbai-based Rationing
Kruti Samiti, an organisation that has done extensive work in obtaining
ration cards for the urban homeless through advocacy and through educating
people of their entitlements. In Madhya Pradesh, plans are afoot to conduct
two public hearings. "We have collected information on 25 villages from the
district administration for this," says Sachin Jain of the Right to Food
Campaign in Madhya Pradesh.

THE events spanning the next two days were as expansive as the public
hearing, intensive. Music, theatre and art interspersed the plenaries and
workshops held at the Delhi University Arts Faculty (North Campus).

The reverberating spirit of `Hela' (an art form), in the music of farmers
from Sawai Madhopur, a poor district in Rajasthan, the cry for
accountability in different languages, and Shankar Singh's (of the MKSS)
ever-popular rendition of "*mein nahin manga*" set in an exuberance that
lasted right through the convention. The inaugural session, chaired by
veteran journalist and former Member of Parliament Kuldeep Nayyar, was
followed by the first plenary which saw people share their real experiences
in using the right to information. The session gave a glimpse of the range
of struggles people have faced, in places where the law exists, where it is
poorly implemented, and where it is simply absent. The narrations by
Susheela (MKSS, Rajasthan) and Santosh (Parivartan, Delhi) gave out one
strong message: asking for information is like asking for the soul of this
corrupt system. There will be resistance but unwavering public pressure can
bring about visible changes.

The second plenary was significant as it encapsulated the living form of the
right to information today. The coming together of leaders from so many
different campaigns on the common platform of right to information indicated
the explicit adoption of this tool in their respective movements. The
session was chaired by Dunu Roy and speakers included Jean Dreze (Right to
Food), Medha Patkar (Dams and Displacement), Suman Sahai (Agriculture and
Globalisation), Harsh Mander (Communalism and Marginalised Communities),
Pradip Prabhu (Forests) and M.P. Parameswaran (Education) and senior right
to information activists in the media like Prakash Kardaley (*Indian Express
*, Pune) and Harivansh (*Prabhat Kabhar*, Jharkhand).

The sheer variety of the parallel workshops organised was mind-boggling. But
this, it seems, was precisely the idea behind holding 36 workshops on an
equal number of topics. So, across the two days, one could stroll into any
of the rooms at the Arts Faculty and hear discussions ranging from the role
of the right to information on Land, Water, Biodiversity and Environment and
Industrial Pollution to the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank,
Globalisation or the Media, Elections, Budgets, Social Audit to Health,
Disability Rights, Education and Communal Violence.

"In Beawar, the approach was more cautious. This time the convention
ventured into areas considered sacrosanct so far... . These areas would have
been much more difficult to take on three or four years ago," said Nikhil
Dey.

An interesting aspect of the workshops was how it brought together people at
different ends of the information spectrum. This was perhaps well
exemplified by the workshop on `Knowing Power - the Politics and Political
Economy of Information' organised by SARAI, a Delhi-based organisation on
contemporary media research. Among the participants was Naurti Bai from
Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC), Tilonia. An outspoken woman from a
small village in Ajmer district, Naurti has been involved in the right to
information movement from the outset. In an engaging debate, Naurti spoke of
the grassroots experiences she brought with her, seeking answers to the
practical problems she had faced while seeking information. The researchers
at SARAI, on the other hand, visualised `right to information' as closely
linked to the `right to broadcast'; to put out information freely and
creatively, without bounds on the form and content. This, in their opinion,
would create automatic pressure on those who manipulated information itself
so far. To Naurti, this was obvious in an intuitive sense, although the
speakers at SARAI somehow placed it in the foreground, over the right of
simply seeking or getting information. Thus, as Naurti focussed on the `here
and now' of the use of this right, grounded in rural realities, the SARAI
speakers dwelled on expanding and redefining the entire conceptualisation of
the right to information in the future.

The fact that the workshops took place simultaneously meant it was
impossible to be everywhere at the same time. Some saw this as a drawback.
Sachin Jain said: "I was content with focussing on topics which were of
interest to me."

Paul Diwakar, of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights in Andhra
Pradesh, said: "We have realised that human rights violation of Dalits
crucially links up to the right to information. It hold the key to many
other rights, like accessing justice by filing FIRs, getting pensions, land
rights or food security. The convention gave us good access to strategies,
on the other hand it also helped us to convey Dalits' perspective, which
needs greater understanding."

Sampat Kale of the National Centre for Advocacy Studies, Pune, said:
"Maharasthra is a State where there is awareness about the right to
information from both sides - the people and the government. The District
Collector of Raigarh fined an official up to Rs.27,000 for not providing
information as per the law. Cases of penalties have been recounted across
Sangli, Satara, Thane, Pune and Akola districts. But most of these have been
regarding applications of the Right to Information Act in urban areas. Rural
awareness is still lacking in the State."

It was really this reciprocity that was the hallmark of all these workshops
and indeed the entire convention. Cross-applications between States, rural
and urban areas, and across campaigns meant everyone had something to learn.
Only the degrees varied, depending on who sat where.

Two more plenaries were held on the concluding day. One was on "Right to
Information and Law and Implementation," chaired by Supreme Court lawyer
Prashant Bhushan. At the concluding plenary, plans and visions for future
action were discussed by some of the activists who have come to symbolise
right to information movements in their respective areas, like Arvind
Kejriwal, Aruna Roy, Prashant Bhushan, Lal Singh and Praveena Imroza. The
valedictory was chaired by former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, who spoke
strongly in favour of the campaign.

THE Delhi convention was not all about prose, debates and discussions.
Various forms of cultural expression, sometimes spontaneous outbursts,
characterised and lent the convention its true meaning. The poignant images
of Godhra and Manipur in the films screened on day one, the touching lyrics
and melody of a song specially composed by singers Vinay and Charul for the
occasion, the outstanding performance of the Manganiyar singers and
Kalbeliya dancers from Barmer (Rajasthan), and the songs of celebration and
protests by farmers and peasants are memories that one carries long after
the adieus were said. The power of the words "*mere jindagi ko janne ka haq
re, ab haq ke bina kya jina, ye jine ka saman nahin* (my life has the right
to know; living without rights is not equal to living)," in the song of
Vinay and Charul went right out to the audience; today it is being sung at
every forum, gathering or demonstration on right to information across the
country.

*"Kuch **bhi diary tak seemit nahin honi chahiye*"(nothing should remain
limited, in a diary), sums up Susheela from Jawaja in Ajmer district. For
someone who has been closely associated with the MKSS from its early days,
the convention brought her the happiness of seeing an idea one has worked
hard for take wing and spread far and wide. For Ramkaran, of SWRC, Tilonia,
"it was an opportunity to learn from the experiences of 15-20 States in two
days, something unthinkable otherwise." For many, the convention has served
to energise and reinforce with even greater strength the potency of the
right to information as a powerful tool in strengthening accountability and
participative democracy. And for those who came with doubts, the convention
helped to clarify at least in part the `whats' and `hows' of the right to
information in reality.

The convention has had some instantaneous effect. In Andhra Pradesh, where
no right to information law exist, and issues have been raised so far only
at the district level, a series of meetings were held in villages and
panchayats after the convention. "We have realised the importance of taking
up issues even at the village level. A case of swindling by the sarpanch in
a village in Mehboobnagar with the connivance of revenue officials in the
construction of latrines were brought to light and the District Collector
has taken action," said G. Sudhakar, district secretary, Dalit Bahujan
Shramik Union. Posters on the right to food and information have been
printed and pasted in a number of panchayats; villagers have been urged to
send postcards with their complaints directly to the administration. In
Madhya Pradesh, organisations involved in the right to food campaign have
now started giving applications in different departments about various
schemes. Issues seen hitherto in isolation are now being redefined in terms
of the right to information. In Maharashtra, an entire documentation of
cases is being planned for its widespread dissemination.

The writing is on the wall. The right to information movement in India has
reached a critical stage. While the struggles continue at different levels,
the campaign continues to grow and get enriched by these individual
experiences. It is this show of strength that the Members of Parliament may
want to remember when they take up the Right to Information Bill this
winter.

 *Sowmya Kerbart Sivakumar, a freelance writer, is a member of Research for
People, Jaipur.*

 * *

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